Ok, I hated it... (some spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2003)

I truly didn't like this movie. Like many, I have grown used to seeing movies that have the financial ressources required to attain their objective but this movie clearly didn't.
Because of lack of money, the movie has to leave huge plot holes open (spoilers): it is about impossible for a whole country to be wiped out so easily and quickly. The ease with which the soldiers dispatch the infected would translate into a huge part of the population surviving an infection. The whole process and speed of the infection does not make sense. Also, very little is said of the source of the infection, besides making the very politically correct assumption that the virus was created by some faceless crazed scientists. Also, a medical question, how long can a comatose person survive with no medical support - including no drip or feeding?
The movie also suffers from its "post-grunge" casting and direction. It has a fascination with unwashed faces and sloppy appearance. For example, I cannot believe that a military unit's discipline would break down as fast as this. Soldiers wouldn't stop shaving or would not start wearing funny hats in only 2 weeks... The production design is very similar to the first Mad Max movie, without the excuse of a long duration of social breakdown. The use of video for filming does not improve the movie... personally, I just think it looks cheap.
Also, if the filmmaker expects us not to see the trick of filming London scenes at 5 am - it is absolutely obvious by the lenght of the shadows on the ground. At one point, I felt that the beginning of the movie was a succession of 20 early morning scenes... It looked plain silly.

I admit I have seen only one of George Romero's zombie flicks but the parallel is very easy to see. However, I would rate this movie as a more psychological version of "Assault on precinct 13" or a less moronic "Ghosts of Mars".
As for the supposedly scary aspect of this movie, i'm convinced my cinema has received some kind of edited version... I didn,t see anything scary at all - some people even laughed.
In conclusion, I'd say the director should stick to making movies like Trainspotting and leave the horror flicks to people who can raise better production budgets.